Colorado Independent Media Center

I was reading Uri Avney the other day. For me, that's almost always a pleasant and thought-provoking experience. The thought that this article ("An End Foreseen? The Arc of Insurgencies" http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery02112008.html ) provoked in me is this.

If Americans want to end our current rule of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations, they can. Its that simple. The main thing they have to decide is that they want it to end. Oh, it may not be change that happens quickly. It may not be a change that happens painlessly. But on the day that the American people decide that they want to end this and return to a government of the people, by the people and for the people ... as soon as that happens, it becomes inevitable.

Mr. Avney's point about insurgencies is this ... "from the time the general public embraces the rebels, the victory of the rebellion is assured." There it is. To translate that to America, you could just say 'from the time the American people embrace the cause to retake control of their own country, the victory of that rebellion is assured.'

Its the first part that we are having a hard time making happen these days. And when you start to look around, you see considerable forces deployed to keep it from happening. The key thing that is happening in this country is that there is a great amount of effort going into supporting the proposition that this is perfection. That things just can't be any better than this. We live in the world's greatest democracy. America is the world's greatest country. America is the land of freedom. America is the richest nation on earth. We are the greatest. Of all time!

So hey, no sense in thinking about how things could be any better? Not if we are the greatest. Don't pay much attention that you haven't gotten a decent raise in years and that you almost don't mind because you feel lucky even to have kept your job at all. No sense in thinking about who's voices really get heard by our government. Not is we live in the greatest democracy of all time. Don't pay much attention to how the politicians don't really seem to care what you think and rarely pass anything to your benefit.

No, don't think a bit about how this nation could be better. Don't think a bit about how maybe the lives of our citizens might be a little better if the government and the nation actually tried to look out for them a bit. Its all perfect just as it is.

See, they know the same basic fact that Mr. Avney puts forward. If the American people were to set their mind to making this their country again, they could do it. In a country that's supposedly a free democracy, it should actually be rather painless to do so. Just organize politically and run candidates that actually want to look out for the welfare of the majority of the people.

Of course, we might discover then that those with wealth and power intend to hand on to it. We might discover that the election system is really rigged to the advantage of those who have wealth and power. That laws actually protect the ability of money to 'influence' an election under the guise of 'freedom of speech'. We might discover crooked election boards and voting machines that can be hacked and central vote counting computers that are only very rarely given a full recount by hand to check the outputted results.

We might discover that we have to go into the streets with marches and civil disobedience. We might discover that we have to proclaim 'no business as usual' to force the system to pay attention to our demands. We might have to demonstrate that when we act with unity, that we have the power to bring the whole system to a halt.

We might discover that those who have wealth and power still want to keep it. We might find that those brave souls who stand up and lead our people's movement find themselves in prison on trumped up charges. We might find that spies infiltrate our meetings and try to sow dissension among us. We might find that we are eavesdropped on and monitored. We might that whenever we try to go to the streets, that we are met by battalions of baton wielding troops who know we are coming.

We might find that we have the strength to stand our ground. To stand firm in our believes. To take the beatings. To mourn our fallen friends.

But in the end, if the American people decide to make America a nation of the people, by the people and for the people, then some day it will be so. It just takes the idea taking hold strongly enough in enough people. On the day that happens, victory becomes inevitable.

Hey America, had enough yet?